Equitable

Joe Doakes, formerly of Como Park, emails:

The voting public in Minnesota is almost equally divided between conservatives and liberals.  To ensure our state government is ideologically reflective of its constituents, I propose all state employees in the Executive and Judicial Branches be required to respond to a short survey:

1. This nation was founded by pilgrims seeking religious freedom. The First Amendment is foremost among the Bill of Rights. Have you exercised that right by attending religious worship services within the last month?

2. This nation was secured by ordinary citizens overthrowing the British colonial government using personally owned firearms.  The right to own firearms is second in the Bill of Rights. Have you exercised that right by firing a pistol, rifle or shotgun within the last month?

3. Should the Constitution be applied as the people who wrote it originally intended, or should the Constitution be reinterpreted by modern judges to suit the circumstances of individual cases and changing times?

4. Should criminal defendants be treated equally in arrest, charging, prosecution, and sentencing; or should some defendants be given special consideration based on race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, or political affiliation?

5. The laws and policies of our government affect everyone living within the United States. Should the right to vote be restricted to United States citizens, or should it extend to anyone living within the United States, whether here legally or not?

6. The state has a budget shortage. Without more tax revenue, some government programs must be reduced or eliminated. How much more are you, personally, willing to pay in state taxes to support a Better Minnesota?

I’m willing to bet a brand-new nickel the results would reveal state government employees are overwhelmingly liberal Democrats. We must replace half of them, to achieve an equitable ideological distribution.  Where do we start?

Joe Doakes

By winning a governor’s race, for starters.